The headquarters of the United Nations Operation in Ivory Coast, which shut down on June 30, is seen at the Sebroko District, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon

Abidjan, Ivory Coast (Reuters + DIPLOMAT.SO) – The United Nations closed its peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast on Friday after 13 years during which it ushered the West African nation through a political crisis to elections and played a decisive role in the 2011 civil war.

Despite a rapid post-war revival, the withdrawal comes as rights groups warn a failure to tackle impunity and reform its fractured, mutiny-prone army threatens the long-term stability of French-speaking West Africa’s largest economy.

“The Secretary-General congratulates the people and government of (Ivory Coast) for their determination and efforts in turning the page of crisis and conflict,” a spokesman for U.N. chief Antonio Guterres said.

The mission, known as UNOCI, was established in 2004, two years after a failed coup attempt set off Ivory Coast’s first civil war, which split the country between northern rebels and troops loyal to then President Laurent Gbagbo.

It was tasked with guiding the country, the world’s top cocoa grower, to a presidential election, which, following several postponements, took place in late 2010 with around 9,000 U.N. troops in place.

Gbagbo attempted to void results in the north and negate the run-off victory of his opponent Alassane Ouattara, who had been held up as a symbol of northern political and social exclusion.

UNOCI head Choi Young-jin, who had been mandated to validate the poll results, declared Ouattara the winner, and the majority of the international community recognized him as president.

Around 3,000 people died in the ensuing civil war before Gbagbo was captured in April 2011. He is now on trial at the International Criminal Court accused of crimes against humanity.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Under the leadership of Ouattara, who won a second five-year term in 2015, Ivory Coast has emerged as Africa’s fastest-growing economy, attracting interest from international investors.

However, UNOCI’s closure, which comes amid a U.S.-driven push to slash the U.N. peacekeeping budget, follows a wave of army mutinies that have exposed the government’s tenuous grip on its military, cobbled together in the wake of the war.

Analysts and diplomats fear further unrest as Ivory Coast heads towards another presidential election in 2020 to choose a successor to Ouattara, who will have reached his two-term limit.

“The peace dividends the (U.N.) has contributed to could be reversed unless the Ivorian government addresses pervasive immunity and the army’s lack of discipline,” said Drissa Traore, vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights.

Amnesty International said at least 10 people were killed and dozens wounded in mutinies that erupted in January when 8,400 former rebels now serving in the army rose up demanding bonus payments.

They twice forced the government to capitulate, in January and again in March, after violence spread to towns and cities across the country. In total, it eventually paid the soldiers 12 million CFA francs ($20,681) each.

“Inadequate progress in addressing a longstanding culture of impunity, reforming the security forces, and strengthening rule of law institutions threaten the country’s long-term prospects for peace and development,” Human Rights Watch said.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades (L), Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci (R) and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pose for a photo during the new round of the Conference on Cyprus under the auspices of the United Nations in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, June 30 2017. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in the Swiss Alpine town of Crans-Montana in an effort to push forward the going peace talks on the reunification of Cyprus. (Xinhua/Xu Jinquan)

The UN chief is supposed to meet in the Swiss Alpine town with participants of the conference from all sides and then chair a session for discussions on related issues.

The new round of the Conference on Cyprus under the auspices of the United Nations started here Wednesday morning, and the UN official described this as “a constructive and good start.”

UN Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide on Wednesday said that the conference provided the “best chance” for a solution to the Cyprus problem, and after the first session he felt even better about this chance.

Jeffrey Feltman, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the Conference on Cyprus, told reporters that the ongoing Conference is a “historic opportunity” to solve a decades-old problem.

Participants of the conference include Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades, as well as foreign ministers and senior representatives from Turkey, Greece, Britain and the European Union (EU).

The talks at Crans-Montana took place in two separate “tables,” one dealing with the key issue of security and guarantees, which involves the guarantor countries, and the other tackling bi-communal issues like governance and power-sharing.

UN officials have said that among the six major chapters of the negotiation, security and guarantees is “where the positions are diametrically opposed,” or “at least traditionally have been diametrically opposed.”

The UN said that the four chapters, namely governance and power sharing, property, economy and EU matters, have been largely completed and the two sides have made unprecedented progress on the territory chapter.

According to the UN arrangement, the planned end date of the conference is July 7. But if necessary, the conference could end earlier or continue after July 7 if agreed by all sides.

Cyprus was divided when Turkey launched a military operation in 1974 in response to a Greek-inspired coup, resulting in the occupation of 37 percent of the island’s territory.

]]>29581Lebanon: Five suicide bombers attacked the army during a raid on a refugee camphttps://diplomat.so/2017/06/30/lebanon-five-suicide-bombers-attacked-the-army-during-a-raid-on-a-refugee-camp/
Fri, 30 Jun 2017 17:52:57 +0000https://diplomat.so/?p=29571

A Lebanese army soldier gestures at a military vehicle at the entrance of the border town of Arsal, in eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Hassan Abdallah

Beirut, Lebanon (Reuters + DIPLOMAT.SO) – Five suicide bombers attacked Lebanese soldiers as they raided two Syrian refugee camps in the Arsal area at the border with Syria on Friday and a sixth militant threw a hand grenade at a patrol, the army said.

The army said seven soldiers were wounded and a girl was killed after one of the suicide bombers blew himself up in the midst of a family of refugees. It did not elaborate.

The raids were part of a major security sweep by the army in an area that has been a flashpoint for violent spillover from the Syria crisis, and several Islamic State officials were among some 350 people detained, a security source said.

The defense minister was quoted as saying the incident showed the importance of tackling the refugee crisis – Lebanon is hosting over 1 million refugees – and vindicated a policy of “pre-emptive strikes” against militant sleeper cells.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which backs Syrian President Bashar al Assad in his fight against insurgents, said the raids complemented its own fighters’ campaign to stop militants entering Lebanon from Syria.

“What is needed today is to unify efforts more and more to fill all the gaps that terrorists can infiltrate from to protect Lebanon and its people from the big dangers that target it,” the Hezbollah statement said.

There has been frequent fighting between the army and militants dug into the hills around Arsal in a large pocket of territory straddling the border.

A Lebanese army statement said one suicide bomber had detonated his explosive laden belt in front of an army patrol during a manhunt for suspected militants in a refugee camp in the northeastern border town. Three soldiers were wounded.

The army said four other suicide bombers blew themselves up without causing any injuries among soldiers, while another militant threw a grenade at a patrol, wounding four soldiers.

During the raids an explosive device blew up while four other explosive devices were defused, it said.

The U.N. refugee agency says Lebanon hosts more than 1 million registered Syrian refugees – constituting a quarter of its population.

The government puts the number at 1.5 million. They are scattered across the country in informal tented settlements where many face the risk of arrest due to lack of legal residency that they struggle to obtain.

The Lebanese army has in recent months stepped up raids in the makeshift camps built on the edge of Arsal, where refugees live in squalid conditions.

The manhunt inside the sprawling camps on the border area came after intelligence reports that militants were preparing to stage a series of attacks inside Lebanon.

The camps around the town have long been a haven for militants coming from Syria who have clashed with Lebanese forces conducting security raids searching for suspects hiding among the refugees.

The militants briefly overran the town in 2014 in a battle that killed dozens and marked one of the more serious spillovers of the Syrian conflict in Lebanon.

A number of attacks in Lebanon in recent years have been linked to the war in Syria.

London, UK (Reuters + DIPLOMAT.SO) – Several British banks said on Friday they had stopped dealing in Qatari riyals, as the diplomatic crisis surrounding the tiny Gulf country disrupted overseas trading of its currency.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and travel links with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting terrorism and courting regional foe Iran, in allegations that have ignited a regional crisis between the U.S. allies.

Offshore trade of the riyal has become increasingly volatile and illiquid as a result, raising risks for banks.

A spokeswoman for Britain’s Lloyds Banking Group said a “third-party supplier” which handles its foreign exchange service had ceased trading in Qatar’s riyal as of June 21.

“This currency is no longer available for sale or buy-back across our high street banks including Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland and Halifax,” she said.

Tesco Bank said it had halted dealings in the riyal, while Barclays stopped trading riyals for retail customers but continued the service for corporate customers, a source said. Royal Bank of Scotland said it had stopped trading riyals for retail customers.

Banks from the four Arab states that have cut ties with Qatar reduced or halted riyal transactions earlier this month, as have some other countries.

Some big international banks have continued riyal business, however; a spokeswoman for HSBC said on Friday that the bank was still providing riyals for high street customers.

This week the riyal traded between offshore banks as low as 3.81 to the U.S. dollar, its lowest level this decade and more than 4 percent below its peg of 3.64 to the dollar.

Most bankers in the Gulf do not think the peg will break; onshore, the Qatari central bank has continued to provide ample supplies of dollars near 3.6415 under its peg mechanism. The world’s biggest liquefied natural gas exporter has huge reserves with which it could defend its currency.

The Arab states opposing Qatar have set a deadline of around Monday next week – officials have not publicly specified the exact time – for Doha to agree to demands such as shutting television channel Al Jazeera and reducing ties to Iran.

Publicly, Doha has shown little sign of complying, and the four states have said they could impose fresh sanctions if their demands are not met. This threat pushed the cost of insuring Qatari sovereign debt against default to a 16-month high on Friday.

In an effort to reassure markets that the riyal was still widely traded overseas, the Qatari central bank declared in the early hours of Friday that it would guarantee all dealings for customers inside and outside Qatar.

“Qatari riyal’s exchange rate is absolutely stable against the U.S. dollar, and its exchangeability inside and outside Qatar is guaranteed at any time at the official price,” the central bank said, calling reports that some exchange companies had stopped buying the riyal “baseless”.

So far, however, the central bank has not taken the step which bankers say may be necessary to stabilise the offshore currency market: massive dollar-selling intervention.

Some Gulf bankers believe the central bank thinks such radical action is unnecessary; Qatar gets most of its dollar supplies from oil and gas exports, which are controlled by the government, so it does not need to fear offshore trade will suck dollars away from onshore companies which need them.

A source at an investment manager in London, however, said intervention to drive the offshore riyal rate back to 3.64 could be dangerously expensive for the central bank.

“In a month, two months’ time, we would start to see the reserves numbers going down massively, and that could start a panic on the currency.” The alternative to intervention is “the currency grinds down weaker and weaker from here,” he added.

Exchange company Travelex said on Thursday it had resumed purchasing the Qatari riyal globally after a brief suspension “due to business challenges”.

But some exchange houses are demanding increasingly punitive rates because of the risks. Two exchange houses in Dubai told Reuters this week they would buy 1,000 Qatari riyals for only 710 or 720 UAE dirhams – far below the 970 dirhams which they offered before the crisis.

Abidjan, Ivory Coast (Xinhua + DIPLOMAT.SO) – A ceremony was held Friday in Cote d’Ivoire to officially mark the initiation of electricity generation at Soubre hydroelectric power station, which was built by a Chinese company.

Launched in February 2013, the project started generating electricity on May 25, about eight months ahead of schedule, according to the constructor Sinohydro Corporation Limited, which is under PowerChina.

With an installed capacity of 275 MW, the 4.5-km-long Soubre dam is the largest of its kind by far in the western African country.

The cost of the project is about 572 million U.S. dollars, of which 85 percent percent is financed by China and 15 percent by Cote d’Ivoire.

]]>29568Iraq: Islamic State under pressure to get rid of its influencehttps://diplomat.so/2017/06/30/iraq-islamicstate-under-pressure-to-get-rid-of-its-influence/
Fri, 30 Jun 2017 16:42:40 +0000https://diplomat.so/?p=29564

An armoured fighting vehicle of the Counter Terrorism Service is seen at the Grand al-Nuri Mosque at the Old City in Mosul, Iraq, June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

Baghdad, Iraq ( Reuters + DIPLOMAT.SO) – U.S.-backed Iraqi forces pressed Islamic State fighters holding out in Mosul’s Old City on Friday, while in Syria the militant group launched a counter-attack against an alliance of militias trying to oust it from its de facto capital of Raqqa.

In Iraq, dozens of civilians poured out of Mosul, long held by IS, and fled in the direction of the Iraqi forces, many of them women and children, thirsty, tired and some wounded.

Iraqi authorities say they are only days away from a victory over militants in their remaining redoubt in Mosul, though commanders of counter-terrorism units fighting their way through the narrow streets of the Old City say die-hard IS fighters are dug in among civilians and the battle ahead remains challenging.

Across the border in Syria, parts of which the IS says fall under its self-proclaimed caliphate, the picture was more complex.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the group had retaken most of the industrial district of Raqqa after mounting a fierce counter-attack against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias.

But west of Raqqa, the Syrian army put the group under more pressure, driving it from its last territory in Aleppo province, a Syrian military source said, in a strategically-important move that relieves pressure on a government supply route.

Even though the IS group is under pressure in these urban strongholds in Iraq and Syria its fighters still occupy an area as big as Belgium across the two countries, according to one estimate.

THOUSANDS DISPLACED, KILLED

In Iraq, grinding warfare in Mosul has displaced 900,000 people, about half the city’s pre-war population, and killed thousands of civilians, according to aid organizations.

Major General Maan al-Saadi, of the Counter Terrorism Service, told Reuters it could take four to five days to capture the insurgents’ redoubt in Mosul by the Tigris River which was defended by about 200 militants.

Tens of thousands of civilians are trapped in the city in desperate conditions, with dwindling supplies of food, water or medicine and no access to health services, according to those who have managed to flee.

The capture of the city would in effect mark the end of the Iraqi half of the caliphate, although the group still controls territory west and south of the city, holding sway over hundreds of thousands of people.

Those who escaped on Friday streamed through alleyways near the Grand al-Nuri Mosque, where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the caliphate in 2014 and which Islamic State fighters blew up a week ago rather than see it fall to the Iraqi army.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of the caliphate on Thursday after CTS units captured the ground of the ruined 850-year-old mosque.

A Reuters correspondent on Friday saw smoke billowing over the riverside districts amid artillery blasts and burst of gunfire. Western troops from the U.S.-led coalition were helping adjust artillery fire with air surveillance, he said.

BATTLE FOR RAQQA

The SDF, the U.S. backed alliance in Syria, took the industrial district of Raqqa this month in its biggest gain so far in its fight for IS’s Syrian capital and if, as the Observatory has reported, IS has regained control there it would be a setback.

The SDF, on its social media feed, acknowledged there had been intense clashes, but added that the whole industrial district was still in its hands and the attack had been thwarted.

Equally, IS appeared to have suffered a setback in Syria with the army taking the last stretch of the Ithriya-Rasafa road, part of the highway from Hama to Raqqa, forcing IS fighters to withdraw from a salient it held to the north, a Syrian military source and the Observatory said.

Islamic State had used that salient, an area containing a range of hills and a dozen villages, to mount frequent attacks on a different road linking Ithriya to Khanaser, part of the government’s only available land route to Aleppo.

The capture of the Ithriya-Rasafa road also shortens the Syrian army’s route to its battlefront with Islamic State south of Tabqa, a possible route for its multi-pronged offensive to relieve the government’s enclave in Deir al-Zor.

On Thursday, the Observatory said the SDF had managed to take the last stretch of the Euphrates’ south bank opposite Raqqa, completely encircling Islamic State inside the city.

Since all Raqqa’s bridges were already destroyed, and the U.S.-led coalition was striking boats crossing the river, the city had already been effectively isolated since May.

The secretive Baghdadi, who has scarcely been seen publicly since proclaiming the caliphate, has left the fighting in Mosul to local commanders and is believed to be hiding on the Iraq-Syrian border, according to U.S. and Iraqi military sources.

He has often been reported killed or wounded. Russia said on June 17 its forces might have killed him in an air strike in Syria. But Washington says it has no information to corroborate such reports and Iraqi officials have also been skeptical.

The U.S. State Department approved the arms sale on Thursday, the first such deal with Taiwan since President Donald Trump took office.

The sale was broadly welcomed on Taiwan as a show of U.S. support, despite concerns about the strain on finances and Beijing’s angry response. Taiwan’s defense department said the sale would enhance the island’s self-defense capability.

China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory and has long opposed any arms sales to the self-governing island by foreign entities. It insists on eventual reunification, through force if necessary.

The U.S. State Department’s approval of the sale — the first since December 2015— follows a tense year between China and Taiwan.

Beijing cut ties with the government of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen shortly after she took office in May last year and has been steadily ratcheting up diplomatic and economic pressure. Her ruling Democratic Progressive Party says it wants stable relations with Beijing, but hasn’t followed her predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou, in endorsing the “one-China” principle.

“We can’t disregard the importance of strengthening our military capabilities just because we are at peace now,” Tsai said Friday. “The best way to stop battle is to always be well prepared for battle. We will continue to enhance our strength and maintain peace. ”

China’s hostility toward Tsai is a big concern, said Lee Chun-yi, a ruling party legislator. “Most people will support this arms sale because we need to strengthen our defense” amid strained relations between the sides, he said. The party favors a stronger Taiwanese identity.

About 66 percent of Taiwanese oppose unification with Beijing, a Taiwan Indicators Survey Research poll found in May 2016.

In the southern city of Kaohsiung, citizens feel vulnerable to a Chinese attack through the shipping port, said George Hou, a media studies lecturer at I-Shou University in the city.

“We need to maintain a balance with China, so for that stability the arms sale will be helpful,” Hou said. “People here will consider it goodwill from the United States.”

Many in Taiwan had been wondering whether Trump was sidelining Taiwan to form stronger relations with Beijing, in part to seek its help in pressuring North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program. Trump had raised hopes on the island when he broke with diplomatic precedent in December by taking a phone call from Tsai, but in February he assured Beijing he supported its “one-China” policy.

“The timing (of the arms sale proposal) is good politically, because a lot of people say Trump doesn’t like Taiwan,” said Huang Kwei-bo, associate professor of diplomacy at National Chengchi University in Taipei. “Now people are saying ‘hey look, the U.S. government still supports us.’”

But some people are concerned it could lead to an arms race with China, Huang said.

The arms approved by the U.S. government for sale to Taiwan include torpedoes, technical support for early warning radar, anti-radiation missiles and missile components, officials from the two governments said.

Taiwanese officials indicated they would pursue the U.S. arms package. The defense ministry plans to start discussions “as soon as possible” about quantities, prices and delivery times, it said in a statement.

“President Trump has been in office for five months and just approved the first arms package for Taiwan,” the foreign ministry in Taipei said. “That amply shows Taiwan’s security is a priority.”

]]>29559Al Shabaab militants surround a hideout for Mukhtar Robow Ali in Bakool before handing him over to the Somali national armyhttps://diplomat.so/2017/06/30/al-shabaab-militants-surround-a-hideout-for-mukhtar-robow-ali-in-bakool-before-handing-him-over-to-the-somali-national-army/
Fri, 30 Jun 2017 16:12:58 +0000https://diplomat.so/?p=29555

Mogadishu, Somalia (Reuters + DIPLOMAT.SO) – Somalia’s insurgency suffered a significant split after government officials confirmed on Friday that they had sent troops to repel Islamist fighters seeking to capture one of their own commanders.

The U.S. had offered a $5 million reward for the capture of Mukhtar Robow Ali “Abu Mansur”, known universally as “Robow”, once the spokesman and deputy leader of al Shabaab, an Islamist insurgency that wants to overthrow Somalia’s weak U.N.-backed government.

Robow fell out of favor with the insurgency in 2013 yet remained outwardly loyal. Earlier this month, the U.S. quietly removed him from their list of sponsors of terror after five years.

“There was and is, negotiation going on between Mukhtar Robow and the Somali federal government but still there is no guarantee that he will defect,” Colonel Aden Ahmed, an officer in the national military, told Reuters on Friday from southwestern Hudur town, near Robow’s stronghold.

A split would further weaken al Shabaab following years where the insurgency has steadily lost ground. It withdrew from the capital in 2011 and has lost control of most of the major towns in south-central Somalia since.

It still maintains a significant presence in the countryside and the Juba region near the border with Kenya and is mounting increasingly large and deadly bombings in the capital.

If Robow defects, it would give pro-government forces more freedom to operate in the regions of Bay and Bakool, slicing al Shabaab’s operational territory in two. Robow is from the large Rahanweyn clan, which dominates many of Somalia’s most fertile areas.

“We understand al Shabaab fighters plan to attack and capture Robow but this will not be easy for he has well-trained and well-armed…fighters who will die for him. Yesterday, we prepared about 300 military soldiers with military cars to defend Robow,” Ahmed said.

“Those troops are now in the outskirts of the town. We cannot send them directly for many reasons. Al Shabaab may ambush us, Robow himself may ambush our forces. We shall give reinforcement to Robow only after we confirm that fighting between al Shabaab and Robow breaks out.”

Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, current president of the south-west state of Somalia, and former speaker of the Transitional Federal Parliament of Somalia, Mukhtar Robow Ali “Abu Mansur” A security chief and former Al Shabaab spokesman – He is currently a dissident leader and has not surrendered himself to the security apparatus, and Hassan Dahir Aweis former head of the Shura Council of the Islamic Courts and the leader of Hezbul Islam – currently a dissident leader and is under the control of a security service.Pictured: June 2005

Residents said Robow was holed up in a village with about 400 fighters about 18 km (11 miles) from Hudur, the capital of Bakool region in southern Somalia.

Two residents said they saw two helicopters and a drone but it was unclear to them if the aircraft were connected to Robow.

“We understand al Shabaab decided to disarm Robow after they heard he was removed from U.S. wanted list,” local elder Mohamed Nur said.

Washington (AP + DIPLOMAT.SO) – President Donald Trump on Friday will discuss North Korea and trade with South Korea’s new leader, whose pro-engagement stance toward the North could clash with the U.S. administration’s intent to crank up sanctions.

Trump welcomed South Korean President Moon Jae-in for formal talks at the White House. The two leaders had their first meeting over dinner Thursday, shortly after the Treasury Department blacklisted a Chinese bank accused of conducting millions in illicit business with North Korea.

The South Korean leader has sought to make clear to the U.S. that he is serious about dealing with his neighbor’s threat, despite his inclination to restart dialogue with the North to address its nuclear weapons development.

Trump and Moon are meeting one-on-one in the Oval Office, then will hold talks involving other officials. Afterward, the two leaders will make statements to reporters.

Moon appeared to try to break the ice early on during Thursday’s dinner, telling Trump that he also suffers from “fake news” coverage, prompting laughs. Trump has used the term to describe media reports he doesn’t like.

Trump wrote on Twitter that they had a “very good meeting” and that they discussed North Korea and trade. Those discussions are expected to continue Friday.

As well as the shared concerns over Pyongyang’s technological progress toward a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike the continental U.S, and the threat it already poses to Seoul, Trump will be pushing for a narrowing of the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea, which was $17 billion last year. He has been critical of a 2012 bilateral free trade agreement and barriers to U.S. auto exports.

South Korean companies on Thursday announced plans to import more American shale gas and build new factories in the U.S. that could help fend off the criticism.

Before Friday’s talks at the White House, Moon laid a wreath at the Korean War Memorial monument near the Washington Mall. He was accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence, whose father served in the U.S. Army during the 1950-53 Korean War. Under the pale blue morning sky, they observed a moment of silence as a lone trumpeter played “Taps.”

It was the second occasion during Moon’s four-day visit that he has paid tribute to American veterans of that conflict. On Wednesday, he visited a memorial to Marines who fought in rearguard U.S. action in 1950 that enabled a mass evacuation of Korean civilians, including Moon’s parents.

Moon then pledged to stand firmly with Trump. “Together we will achieve the dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear program, peace on the Korean Peninsula and eventually peace in Northeast Asia,” he said.

Moon’s conservative predecessor, who was impeached in a bribery scandal, took a hard line toward North Korea. Moon has sought to allay concerns that his softer stance could open fissures with Washington. In recent interviews he has said sanctions alone cannot solve the problem of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, but the “right conditions” are needed for dialogue.

Adding to those concerns he has delayed the full deployment of a U.S. missile defense system, which is intended to defend South Koreans and the 28,000 U.S. troops based in the country, pending an environmental review.

Mukhtar Robow Ali “Abu Mansur”, One of the top leaders of Al Shabaab dissidents.

Washington, D.C. (Agencies + DIPLOMAT.SO) – The U.S. Department of State has removed the $5 million dollar bounty on the former deputy leader and founding member of the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Harakat al-Shabaab (HSM), Sheikh Mukhtar Robow earlier this week. Robow who served al-Shabaab as the terror group’s chief spokesperson and al-Shabaab’s southern regional commander of insurgent forces was put on the U.S. State Department’s ‘Rewards for Justice’ Program which falls under Executive Order 13224 signed into law on September 23rd 2001 during the Bush administration in 2012.

Mukhtar Robow Ali “Abu Mansur”, who is hiding in a small village near the town of Hudur, capital of Bakool region, southwest of Mogadishu, has special guards from his clan’s armed militia, where he cut his teeth as a Mujahideen fighter in Afghanistan in the 1980’s where he received training in the bin Laden camps in the mountains and fought to oust the Soviet “invaders” that were occupying the region.